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Amazon is reportedly planning to re-enter the smartphone market more than 10 years after its last attempt. According to a Reuters report, the mysterious phone is internally codenamed "Transformer" and is being developed by the company's devices and services unit.
There isn't a whole lot to go on right now, but it probably won't surprise many to learn that the phone will likely lean heavily on AI. According to Reuters' sources, Alexa functionality would be a core part of the experience, but Amazon wouldn't necessarily build a custom OS around its voice assistant. The phone would make buying products on Amazon and using services like Prime Music and Prime Video "easier than ever," and may bypass traditional app stores.
Reuters reports that the Transformer project is being led by the recently established ZeroOne, an Amazon devices unit headed up by ex-Microsoft executive and Xbox co-founder J Allard, who was also one of the creators of Zune. Allard joined Amazon last year to lead a "a special projects team dedicated to inventing breakthrough consumer product categories."
The development team has reportedly considered launching both a traditional smartphone and a so-called "dumbphone," which would presumably strip away anything that needlessly distracted you from the Amazon empire. Reuters'
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It's hard not to find the premise of Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary instantly compelling: Something is slowly killing the sun and threatening life on Earth. That same mysterious force, dubbed the Astrophage, also destroyed every nearby star — except one. Our only hope is to visit that solar system and figure out what helped it survive. And there's just one middle school science teacher who can do it.
At its core is Weir's love of technical problem solving, along with a tremendous performance by Ryan Gosling in full nerd hero mode as the aforementioned science teacher (and former molecular biologist). It's the sort of sweeping sci-fi epic that will make a whole generation of kids ready to science the shit out of humanity's future problems. And maybe it'll remind clueless adults that we gain much more by working together to solve global issues, instead of being purely self-interested.
The film starts with Gosling's character, Ryland Grace, waking up from an induced coma with no memory. He's shocked to find that he's light years away from Earth, and that the other two members of his crew are already dead. As he gets his bearings, he recalls that he was sent on a last-ditch mission, Project Hail Mary, to save the sun and everyone on Earth. No pressure! These early moments make it clear that screenwriter Drew Goddard (who also adapted The Martian), as well as directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, can deftly juggle comedy alongside the inherent drama in the story.
There's something genuinely moving about the mission. With about 30 years before the planet is faced with a global cooling event likely ending
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 Google is developing a native Gemini app for the Mac, reports Bloomberg. Right now, Mac users who want to use Google's Gemini AI have to use a web browser, but that will change with a dedicated Mac app.
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 Apple today urged iPhone users who are running iOS 13 or iOS 14 to upgrade to iOS 15 to protect themselves from being hacked through malicious web content.
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